Sustainable Communities Act 2007

The Sustainable Communities Act 2007 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Brought to Parliament as a Private Member's Bill, it received Royal Assent on 23 October 2007. The Sustainable Communities Act represents the campaign success by Local Works, a UK coalition of over 100 national organisations, to introduce legislation that will help reverse the trend of community decline, also called 'Ghost Town Britain'.

Ghost Town Britain refers to the ongoing loss of local facilities and services including, amongst others: shops, markets, Post Offices, pubs, bank branches and health centres, etc. The term 'Ghost Town Britain' was initially coined by the British think-tank the New Economics Foundation. The Sustainable Communities Act 2007 was amended in 2010 when the Sustainable Communities Act 2007 (Amendment) Act passed through Parliament and became law on 6 April 2010.

The Act sets up a process, by which councils can drive government action. Councils are given the power to make proposals to the Secretary of State, as to how government can ‘assist councils in promoting the sustainability of local communities’. The SoS is then under a duty to ‘reach agreement’ with councils, via their representative body, the Local Government Association (the LGA - called ‘the selector‘ in the Act) on which proposals will be given priority. The Act seeks to open up the work of local communities to greater transparency by including ‘local people’ in the proposal process. The Act specifies that when making their proposals to the SoS, councils must involve ‘local people’ by setting up, or recognising if they already exist, ‘panels of representatives of local people’ (or citizens’ panels). Councils then must ‘reach agreement’ (not just consult) with those panels regarding ideas for proposals to put to the SoS for government action. Under the Act, local sustainability has four measurements: 1. Thriving local regeneration 2. Environmental protection 3. Social inclusion 4. Active democratic participation

The local sustainability strategies will state ways in which community decline is to be reversed and local sustainability is to be created. This could include measures to promote local shops and services, local jobs and local businesses; measures to reduce social exclusion and increase active citizenship; as well as measures to improve the local environment.

On 14 October 2008 The Secretary of State (Hazel Blears) invited councils (district, borough, city, unitary and county) to make proposals to central government, via the LGA, by 31 July 2009 on how central government can help promote local sustainability. One hundred Local Authorities ‘opted in’ to the first round of the Act (out of the 468 in total).[7] From this opt in, 300 proposals reached the LGA, and of these 199 were put forward to the then Labour government for consideration.[8] In December 2010, a year after the proposals had been submitted by the selector, the new coalition government Secretary of State responded. Around half of the proposals were "implemented" or "taken forward".[9]

The following local authorities have opted into the Sustainable Communities Act 2007:

• Adur District Council[10]
• Allerdale Borough Council[10]
• Bath and North East Somerset Council[10]
• Bexley Borough Council[10]
• Birmingham City Council[10]
• Blackpool Borough Council[10]
• Bradford Metropolitan District Council[10]
• Brighton and Hove City Council[10]
• Bristol City Council[10]
• Bury Metropolitan Borough Council[10]
• Cambridge City Council[10]
• Camden Borough Council[10]
• Chelmsford Borough Council[10]
• Corby Borough Council[10]
• Cornwall County Council[10]
• Craven District Council[10]
• Darlington Borough Council[10]
• Devon County Council[10]
• Dorset County Council[10]
• Dudley Borough Council[10]
• Eastbourne Borough Council[10]
• East Dorset District Council[10]
• East Riding of Yorkshire Council[10]
• Erewash Borough Council[10]
• Exeter City Council[10]
• Gloucestershire County Council[10]
• Hambleton District Council[10]
• Hammersmith and Fulham Borough Council[10]
• Haringey Borough Council[10]
• Harrogate Borough Council[10]
• Harrow Borough Council[10]
• Hastings Borough Council[10]
• Herefordshire County Council[10]
• High Peak Borough Council[10]
• Horsham District Council[10]
• Hounslow Borough Council[10]
• Hull City Council[10]
• Islington Borough Council[10]
• Kingston upon Thames Borough Council[10]
• Lambeth Borough Council[10]
• Lancaster City Council[10]
• Leicestershire County Council[10]
• Lewes District Council[10]
• Lewisham Borough Council[10]
• Liverpool City Council[10]
• Manchester City Council[10]
• Mendip District Council[10]
• Mid Devon District Council[10]
• Mid Sussex District Council[10]
• Newcastle City Council[10]
• Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council[10]
• North Dorset District Council[10]
• North Somerset Council[10]
• North Yorkshire County Council[10]
• Northamptonshire County Council[10]
• Norwich City Council[10]
• Oldham Borough Council[10]
• Oxford City Council[10]
• Pendle Borough Council[10]
• Poole Borough Council[10]
• Preston City Council[10]
• Purbeck District Council[10]
• Redbridge Borough Council[10]
• Richmond District Council[10]
• Richmond-upon-Thames Borough Council[10]
• Ryedale District Council[10]
• Scarborough Borough Council[10]
• Sefton Borough Council[10]
• Selby District Council[10]
• Sheffield City Council[10]
• Slough Borough Council[10]
• Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council[10]
• South Gloucestershire Council[10]
• South Hams District Council[10]
• South Lakeland District Council[10]
• South Somerset District Council[10]
• South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough Council[10]
• Southampton City Council[10]
• Southend-on-Sea Borough Council[10]
• Southwark Borough Council[10]
• Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council[10]
• Suffolk County Council[10]
• Sutton Borough Council[10]
• Teingbridge District Council[10]
• Three Rivers District Council[10]
• Torridge District Council[10]
• Trafford Borough Council[10]
• Warrington Borough Council[10]
• Warwick District Council[10]
• West Berkshire Council (Unitary Authority)[10]
• West Devon Borough Council[10]
• West Dorset District Council[10]
• West Oxfordshire District Council[10]
• Weymouth & Portland Borough Council[10]
• Wiltshire County Council[10]
• Windsor and Maidenhead[10]
• Woking Borough Council[10]
• Worthing Borough Council[10]
• Wycombe District Council[10]
• York City Council[10]

• Sustainable Communities Plan
• Ghost Town Britain: The 2002 report by the New Economics Foundation
• Localism Act 2011

• Parliament: Sustainable Communities Bill